DO Seals 1, no. 29.4.Cf. a similar specimen, probably from the same boulloterion, published in Sig., 241, no. 5 (Schlumberger collection); another (?) was acquired by the British Museum before 1875 (Catalogue of the Additions in the Department of Manuscripts of the British Museum, 1854-75, 827) and was published by Birch, nos. 17780, 17782 (with ref. to Sig.). A very similar specimen, inaccurately described and read, belonged to a certain Hadji Agop in the nineteenth century: Ἑλλ. Φιλολ. Σύλλ. 17 (1886), Suppl., 145.

Translation

Lord, help John Triakontaphyllos, protoproedros and praitor of Bulgaria.

Commentary

Because of the lack of space, it is unlikely that the obverse was decorated with two military saints, as Schlumberger thought. We know of several other eleventh-century seals that belonged to John Triakontaphyllos (e.g., Sig., 710-11; Birch, no. 17933; Konstantopoulos, no. 391.